Ohio State and Washington to meet in 105th Rose Bowl

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Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer holds the trophy after Ohio State defeated Northwestern in the Big Ten championship NCAA college football game, early Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018, in Indianapolis. Ohio State won 45-24. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

After defeating Northwestern, 45-24, in the Big Ten title game on Saturday, the Buckeyes ended up sixth in the final playoff rankings, two spots short of making the four-team field, a finish that slotted them for the Rose Bowl.

It is the second consecutive season in which the Buckeyes won the conference championship, but did not reach the playoff. Their only stumble came at Purdue in October, when they were dealt a humbling 49-20 loss.

Washington was left out of the playoff picture by midseason after suffering a second loss at rival Oregon in overtime and then falling for a third time at Cal during the final weekend of October.

The Huskies clinched their Rose Bowl trip with a 10-3 victory over Utah in the Pac-12 title game on Friday, reeling off four consecutive wins in November. They finished ninth in the final playoff rankings. It is the third time in five years that the Pac-12 champion did not make the playoff.

“From both sides, I think there’s going to be a lot of excitement to go down to Pasadena,” Washington coach Chris Petersen said on a teleconference with reporters. “I think the Rose Bowl carries that much weight. I really do. But I know Ohio State easily, with their resume, could be in that four-team tournament. There’s hard, and that’s disappointing to not have an opportunity when it becomes a subjective beauty pageant.”

It will be the first Rose Bowl that either Petersen or Ohio State coach Urban Meyer has coached in.

The last time the champions of the two Big Ten and Pac-12 met in the Rose Bowl was in 2014 with Michigan State facing Stanford.

Over the following seasons, the bowl game served as a semifinal for the playoff or included a Big Ten or Pac-12 at-large team.

Ohio State (12-1) has been led throughout this fall by quarterback Dwayne Haskins, a potential Heisman Trophy finalist who set Big Ten single-season records for passing yards and touchdowns.

Haskins completed 70 percent of his passes for 4,580 yards and 47 touchdowns with eight interceptions.

Their passing game will be challenged by the Huskies (10-3), who finished 12th in the nation in total defense (301.8 yards allowed per game) and fifth in scoring defense (15.5 points allowed per game).

In order to advance to the Pac-12 championship, they held rival Washington State’s Air Raid offense to season-lows for points and yards in a 28-15 win in the Apple Cup, pestering Gardner Minshew, the Cougar’s Heisman candidate passer, throughout the snowy game.

It will be the 15th appearance in the Rose Bowl for both teams, but their first matchup against each other.

Ohio State last played in the Rose Bowl in 2010 against Oregon, and Washington in 2001 against Purdue. Both were victorious.

Joey Kaufman is the USC beat writer for the Southern California News Group. Since joining the Orange County Register in 2015, he has also covered Major League Baseball and UCLA athletics. His work has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors and Football Writers Association of America. Kaufman grew up in beautiful downtown Burbank.